Raymond Hood: The Daily Planet, 30 Rock, & The Chicago Tribune

The Daily News Building (also known as the News Building) is an art-deco sykscraper located at 220 East 42nd Street in New York City. Constructed between 1929-1930, this building originally served as the headquarters for the New York Daily News.

This building may not ring a bell for everyone, but if I said that this is where my buddy Clark Kent (Superman!) worked, many of you will recognize this building as the headquarters of the fictional newspaper The Daily Planet.

The top of the Daily New Building was flat, which was not the norm for buildings of the time. However, this detail served as an inspiration for future buildings.

30 Rock

This hit comedy show is named after the GE Building where NBC Studios is located, at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in New York City.

Rockefeller Center is comprised of 19 commercial buildings covering 22 acres in midtown Manhattan. These art deco buildings were constructed in 1939, and represent one of the largest private building projects undertaken in modern times.

This center is home to Radio City Music Hall, as well as the famous sunken plaza with the statue of Prometheus. Rhematoid Arthritis Guy has been fortunate enough to take a few laps on this ice rink.

The Chicago Tribune

The Tribune Tower is a neo-gothic building located at 435 North Michigan Avenue in Chicago. This skyscraper serves as the home of the Chicago Tribune.

In 1922, the newspaper held an international design competition for its new headquarters. More than 250 designs were received, and this event served as a pivotal point in American architectural history. (Trust me, as an architecture student I sat through quite a few lectures on the different designs that were submitted.)

Why am I writing about these buildings?

They were all designed by architect Raymond Hood (1881-1934). Born in Rhode Island, Hood studied at Brown University, MIT, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Hood lived with rheumatoid arthritis. Both his career and his life were cut short when he died in his early fifties, due to complications from rheumatoid arthritis.

“A man I liked was Raymond Hood. . . . Even if you look down the list through the ages Raymond Hood will stand out among the architects of all time as one who had the fortune and the genius to conduct radical experimentation with mass and color. Many have had this privilege on canvas or with clay, but it is rare for a man to be allowed to play around with steel and glass and stone in this fashion. . . .

“His buildings did not cumber the earth. Take, for instance, the Daily News Building and the Tribune Tower in Chicago. In both instances the passerby gets the effect that the structure is poised upon one toe and eager to float or fly. . . . Hood could do you a skyscraper which was ready for a fight or frolic. . . .

I see no reason why he should not be one of the happiest inhabitants of heaven. There’s so much work to be done. He will look at the streets of gold and the many mansions of jade and jasper and then if Hood carries with him something of his mortality he’ll say ‘Not that, let’s have steel and glass.’ And if he is still the man he was, which I most fervently believe, already the riveting machines have begun their fanfare within the pearly gates.”

Comments 4

I LOVE Art Deco..so sleek and beautiful. My favorites are the Empire state building and 30 rock…I love all the attention to detail, especially the brass elevator doors.
That truly was an era of beautiful buildings.